Trade Will Be Front And Center In Farm Bill Talks

The Senate Ag Committee is preparing to hold its first Farm Bill hearing of the new Congress, focusing on trade and global food aid.  The Ag panel is scheduled to hear from USDA Trade Undersecretary Alexis Taylor, Undersecretary for Marketing Jenny Lester Moffitt and Sarah Charles USAID Assistant to the Administrator.  Taylor said the top trade issues are not just within existing agreements, but looking at establishing new deals.

“From the question of new trade deals, what I’m very interested in, and a couple of fundamentals, what is meaningful market access for a cross section and diversity of U.S. agricultural products? How do we address non-tariff barriers and ensure that science-based regulatory processes and decision-making is being implemented.”

And as with USMCA, the focus in the Biden IPEF agreement will be enforcing science-based trade versus tariff liberalization under new Free Trade Agreements.

“The Indo Pacific Economic Framework, I think that’s a very exciting region of the world, certainly for U.S. Agriculture—there’s a lot of opportunity. I am interested in understanding the agriculture community’s priorities, and engaging within the administration on, what does meaningful market access look like for our producers.”

But short of politically sensitive trade deals the White House seeks to avoid, that may not be enough for Ag committee members of both parties, especially as competitors continue to make their own trade deals leaving the U.S. on the sidelines. 

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